The World Poker Tour stop in San Jose for the Bay 101 Shooting Stars has proven to be an exciting event after working down to the final twenty players for Thursday’s action.
149 players and 19 of the remaining “Shooting Stars” (the professional players carrying a $5000 bounty on their heads) came back for action on Wednesday with Bryce Yockey, the Day 1A chip leader, holding court over Brandon Wong and Day 1B chip leader Christ Summers. All eyes were on the remaining bounties, however, and many of those pros with said bounty would not find their way to the play on Thursday. Almost from the opening gun, those Shooting Stars started falling by the wayside and, in some cases, at the hands of other notable pros in their own right.
Once the cards were in the air, Shooting Star Marvin Rettenmaier found his way to the door of Bay 101 at the hands of the underrated Joe Serock. Rettenmaier was all in on the button with an unsuited K-7 and Serock woke up in the big blind with pocket Kings. Two Jacks came on the flop and, once a third hit on the turn, the popular German pro was drawing dead and out of the tournament.
Moments later, “Shooting Star on Shooting Star” violence would take place between former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. With only about 12K in chips, Grospellier committed his stack after Duhamel had put out a raise. Duhamel made the call and turned up pocket treys, good enough for the pre-flop lead over Grospellier’s A-Q. A Jack on the flop and a King on the turn made the 2010 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner sweat a bit but, once no ten or one of his hole cards found the river, Duhamel had collected the bounty for his knockout of Grospellier.
As the field was winnowed down, these pro-on-pro clashes became more predominant. Jonathan Little (surprisingly not a Shooting Star) was able to take home a bounty when his pocket Aces took down Shooting Star Mike Matusow’s pocket Kings. In one of the more exciting hands of Wednesday’s play, Mike McClain (notable for being the “Agony of Defeat” player in the old WSOP/ESPN promo reels, but also a tournament poker millionaire) knocked out Shooting Star Scott Seiver in a four way all in where every player held a pocket pair.
It wasn’t until the middle of the evening that the survivors of the action on Wednesday were battling it out on the bubble. Over the span of an hour, the 37 players fought it out until a clash of Shooting Stars brought the players to the money.
After a raise from Men Nguyen, Kathy Liebert dropped her stack on the baize, forcing “The Master” to a decision. He asked for a count, stating, “If it’s less than 100,000 then I call.” Liebert held 92K and Nguyen did indeed call, only to find himself behind Liebert’s Big Slick with his A-10 of clubs. The flop was fortuitous, however, coming 10-9-8 with two clubs to catapult Nguyen to the lead. A third club on the turn sealed the deal for Nguyen, knocking Liebert out on the bubble and, to add insult to injury, collecting her $5000 bounty.
With the players in the money, the shorter stacks could exhale and be thankful to take in their $16000 minimum payday. Shooting Stars Fabrice Soulier, Linda Johnson, Allen Cunningham, Jason Mercier (by Duhamel, notching his second bounty) and Nguyen would be knocked out before the end of play on Wednesday. The start of day chip leader, Yockey, also would be eliminated before the final hand of the night.
Although they had planned to play to eighteen players, action was halted with 20 players remaining. When the cards fly on Thursday, the Top Six line up as such:
1. Scott Baumstein, 1.301 million
2. Andrew Badecker, 1.106 million
3. Moon Kim, 1.016 million
4. Joseph Elpayaa, 861,000
5. Erik Cajelais, 807,000
6. Jonathan Duhamel, 751,000*
* Shooting Star
While Baumstein and Badecker are riding high, Duhamel is continuing on his 2012 rampage. By knocking out two bounties on Wednesday, he’s on a freeroll now and more than likely will be playing without fear on Thursday. He’s joined by J. C. Tran as the only other Shooting Star remaining in the field.
It could be a long day for the remaining twenty men in this tournament. The players will play down today to the final six handed WPT final table; if past experiences with this process hold true, it conceivably could be early Friday morning before the final table of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars is determined.
